Anatomy of a Photo: Maximum Awesome
Freddy effortlessly demonstrates Rules #80 and #82, the Three-Point System, and the Goldilocks Principle while his mechanic calmly swaps a mortal’s wheel for one that can withstand his ferocious sprint. All the while, a young Colonel Sanders looks on with bemused disapproval.
For anyone still wondering whether the 70’s was the coolest decade ever, it was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPMS6tGOACo
Pretty sure that’s John Hodgman
(The Sanders/Hodgman imposter? That was me in eighth grade, ‘stache included. And I was driving.)
It’s definitely Hodgman. Some timely advice from him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06vT2rWARFE
The white bar tape is so elegant, especially knowing that it will probably be replaced for the next race.
@snowgeek
Absolutely, who knew he spent time in Europe when he was so young. That’s how he dressed for 1st grade. And even in 1st grade he knew a thing or two about quick wheel changes. He was not impressed with this one.
Damn, Freddy is wearing those awesome leather gloves. And the legs. Yep, that’s a man.
More 70’s awesomeness V-Locus style….
And the look on the gentlemans face leaning against the car, as if to say
” Yes, well then, that all appears to be in order, good job chaps, carry on ! “
@Barracuda He might be a hands-on owner. “I better just see first-hand exactly how my money is being spent. It’s my support car so I’ll just ride with the support. And we might be making some changes around here — or not.”
I love the look on Freddy’s face as the Peleton disappears. It’s as if he is saying “You F%#ker’s better watch out when I get back to the Peleton. I’m going to be dishing out some awesomeness.”
@Barracuda
Right? I didn’t know until today that race mechanics were unionized.
@Barracuda
Or perhaps a young Nick Offerman?
He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.
@Rick
Just because this needs to be seen again.
@PeakInTwoYears
And again.
There’s so much fucking awesome going on in that photo. Freddy looking down the road, patient, but thinking how relaxed he’s going to be when he rolls back into the bunch like it ain’t no thing. And then crushes a few souls. Fan-tastic.
@Haldy
Love love that photo!
@scaler911
My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.
@Rick
That’s not a fucking Trabant.
The cap lounging against the car looks like a young Swiss Toni
After a month of enforced isolation (house move and no broadband for a month)…I is back! Now I get to read all the last months articles and try and catch up on the monday morning quiz!
Freddy is such a unique looking individual. Reading a bit about him in “Half Man, Half Machine” I’m more intrigued than ever. Some really big wins…but financial and bottle troubles seem to have limited his full potential. Always feels odd writing that about such an incredible rider, but have to wonder what might have been if he’d lived more monk like.
How big were he and Godefroot? Neither seems too large, though both were stout by today’s standards. Still, seem on the small size to have handled cobbles so well. I guess being Belgian doesn’t hurt…
Just a brillantly gorgeous photo. Does anyone know what year and/or race this is and how Freddy ended up at the end?
Seems like a northern Spring Classic but it could be any of them.
@Gianni
Jesus, and the white socks and the hairnet. And the legs again. Fucking awesome.
“For anyone still wondering whether the 70″²s was the coolest decade ever, it was.”
Fränk, dam, you can get it with so little!
Every day I wake up and swing a leg over the iron I thank Merckx that I was on a racing machine at the tail end of the 70’s!
There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING that comes after that has yet to make the ride better or almost more importantly better looking. Starting at the hair net and working down to the Marresi or Duegi shoes, nothing!
As a P.S. I bet Fast Freddy was a tough s o b as we’re many in the day. No college/Uni boys and thin pickings at the top. When I think of hard men its not only the guns but the elbows and fists… Where do you think he got that nose?
So how awesome was Freddy? In 1977 when with the Red Guard of Flandria, he won 13 stages of the Vuelta! That’s right, 13 fucking stage wins. He led the race from start to finish and his teammate Michel Pollentier won a stage too. That is dominance never seen since.
@Jarvis
Right it is a Peugot.
PS Shocking fact of the day: Freddy Maertens never won a monument.
@wiscot
Indeed. I had no idea. I never would have said that he did not win at least one. I know that he podiumed a few but never on the top step, eh? Cool trivia right there!
That Hipster leaning against the car looks an awful lot like PC from the old Apple commercials…
Another Freddy tidbit. Curse of the Rainbow Jersey? Not for Freddy. In 1977 after winning the World Championship road race in 1976 he won 53 races.
…and still looks like he could crush you in the sprint. Or at anything else in life for that matter.
Freddy was DQ’d in Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1977 for a bike change from his brother on the Koppenberg, when he towed de Vlaeminck to the line.
A cobble in the museum at Oudenaarde declares him the moral victor.
@DerHoggz
Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.
@ped
A bit of research on pro cycling in the 70s is incredible – the wheeling and dealing is mind-blowing. Merckx basically let Gimondi win the world title rather than let Maertens win riding Shimano. Merckx and Gimondi both rode Campagnolo.
@wiscot How ’bout de Vlaeminck paying Jan Raas a shedload to chase down team-mate Moser in Paris-Roubaix, to make it look like he was just sitting in the wheel, they didn’t manage to catch him tho
@ped
I can believe it, but did Roger pay up? Freddy’s beef was that Roger never paid him what he said he would for Flanders. Robert Millar complained that he lost the Vuelta because his manager would not do deals with some of the other teams against Spanish opposition. This raises the question: in team budgets are payoffs a line item on listed under miscellaneous expenses? Or are riders expected to cough up personally?
Thank you for making my day. Now I can return to work.
@kixsand
‘cept that’s the Gypsy.
Crushing the Gypse on the Muur.
And again on the Mur de Huy.
And the very definition of Flemish Facial.
A mountain of Freddy Love over on Tumblr.
The man leaning on the Peugeot doing an impression of a pair of scissors (a not uncommon pose in AOAP circles) has neglected to leave the bottom button of his waistcoat undone. This
may mean that he is an American or a communist agent but more likely that he is a cad and up to no good. My suspicion is that not 10 minutes prior to this picture being taken he was scattering tacks on the thoroughfare all the while twirling his soupstrainer in a suitably villainous fashion.
@wiscot
Pollentier being the ugliest rider of his generation and also did a major fumble when peeing into a cup at l’Alpe in the ’78 Tour after winning the stage and taking yellow. The ol’ condom-fill-with-pee ploy.
@wiscot
Race organizers typically pay their appearance fees and winnings in cash so the payoffs happen under the table; its one of the ways the organization of the sport has been complicit in all the cheating going on.
All paid in cash, and the deals are usually, “If you help me win…” meaning that they only pay out if the win comes.
@kixsand
That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.
@frank
Yeah, Freddy and Michel P – not the two most handsome dudes in the 70s peloton. I’m crap at posting, but if you’re a hot bike groupie, who you gonna call: Roger DeVlaeminck? The Prophet? Didi Thurau? Lo Scerifo? or Freddy or Michel? Mind you, sometimes fame cancels out lot of ugliness.
@wiscot
Moser is still a fucking stud.
It angers me how some of these men just keep looking more badass as they get older. I, on the other hand, look increasingly like washed-up seaweed.
@wiscot Damn!
Then you’ve got Fabian and Bone-dog holding up the rear on the current generation.
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Would someone please post the assos girl and bring some reason back to this thread for fucks sake??
@frank
No shit, his lower back is perpendicular to the surface of the earth. Unearthly.
@frank
Cinelli girl may also be accepted.
Cinelli Lady is awesome!